Summertime NC LITe

On June 9 I attended the summer meeting of NC LITe (NC Library Instructional Technology). Since about 2009, a group of instruction librarians and others have been meeting twice a year to share ideas and projects. The focus has been primarily on tools that we use for instructional purposes, but the topics have expanded to include pedagogy, outreach, and much more. Basically it covers any instruction-related topic, but especially the intersection of instruction and technology. This year we had a our largest meeting yet. It was hosted by Duke University at The Edge.

NC LITe has varying levels of structure (mostly depends on the campus host for the particular meeting), but we rarely have formal presentations. One constant is that we always kick off with a Campus Update. This round robin format allows each campus to share out new events and services. It is a great way to hear from all campuses and get a sense of the variety of activities and interests. This year’s hosts, Brittany Wofford and Kim Duckett at Duke University, took notes for the campus updates and you can read them on the Google Doc.

After the campus updates, we attended break out sessions on various topics. I attended one on Curriculum Mapping and a second on Engagement outside the Library. Notes for some of the breakout sessions will be available in the Google Doc.

The Curriculum Mapping session was especially helpful for me in taking on a new liaison area (History) and being an Assistant Director of IGS. The session was facilitated by

Snapshot of Hannah’s Curriculum Map

Hannah Rozear, Instructional Services Librarian at Duke, who also created this handout on Curriculum Mapping. She talked about her experience using Mindomo to map her interaction with the Global Health program at Duke. Char Booth has written and presented extensively on this topic before and our own Amy Harris’s article was recently recognized by the ALA Library Instruction Round Table as a 2015 Top Twenty article. So, this is something that we’ve been talking about, but it was especially helpful to see how Hannah handled the process for one program and from her own perspective as the liaison librarian. For example, in addition to mapping library instruction against the courses offered, she mapped research and geographic interests of the faculty as well as the extracurricular and co-curricular opportunities for students. I found that to be helpful for someone new to an area. Our discussion also revolved around what to do with the information once we have collected it. Most of us would use the map as an environmental scan, but the visualization of our library instruction next to the curriculum could also help understand where holes are with library support for a discipline (for example, anthropology has a lot of library instruction but social work is getting no love). If you are new to curriculum mapping, you can see examples from Claremont Colleges Library.

The second session on Engagement outside the Library focused on efforts to engage students outside the library walls and on non-curriculum based activities within the library. For example, Duke’s The Edge has hosted student lightning talks on their personal research projects. Others talked about their efforts to have collaborative research/writing centers in dorms. One interesting point was that to get graduate students involved in these activities we need to be sure to give them opportunities that are “CV worthy.” For example, if you have an undergraduate symposium, recruit graduate students to serve as jury members for paper prizes.

My favorite part about these meetings is the chance to catch up with academic librarians from around the state. UNCG librarians have always had close relationships with the librarians at Wake Forest University and getting to see that crew is always a highlight of NC LITe.